Wayf Boys break K-pop rules — and Interscope is buying in

Wayf Boys has been around for less than two weeks. But the five-piece group has already made clear that it has little interest in following the K-pop playbook.

While agencies typically introduce members one by one ahead of a debut, Wayf Boys initially concealed their faces on social media behind illustrated characters drawn by member Anderson. Their videos show the members speaking freely — profanity included — rather than sticking to the carefully managed language expected of most idols in official content.

Then, in June, two months before their debut, the group uploaded security camera footage of members Andrew and Junmyung getting into a fistfight. The video carried a simple title: “who won??”

According to Czaer, CEO of Wayf and creative director of Wayf Boys, all of this was intentional. He calls it “Nu K-pop” — though he acknowledges that the concept may take time to understand.

“Usually, when an idol group is about to debut, people want to see their faces first. We hid them,” Czaer told The Korea Herald at Wayf’s office in Seoul on Tuesday.

“We’re asking people to look at what they do instead of their faces. We’re going to keep hiding their faces, too. But that means we have to work hard to make good content, good music and deliver good messages. It would be really strange to tell people not to look at their faces if we couldn’t even do that.”

The group’s unfiltered language and behavior are part of the same idea: showing the members as they are.

“That’s why we dropped our pants from the start. It’s like saying, ‘Don’t expect anything conventional from us,'” Czaer said.

Indeed, all five members pull down their pants around the 2-minute-45-second mark of the music video for debut single “Wayf Boys Do.”

But Czaer stressed that Nu K-pop is not a rejection of conventional K-pop.

“To be clear, it’s not that I dislike existing K-pop and refuse to do it. I can’t follow that system, and I don’t even know how to. I couldn’t imitate it if I tried,” he said.

“And these guys are going to make mistakes in all this freedom. That’s what being in your 20s is about. You make mistakes, learn and grow. I want to keep telling fans, ‘We’re just ordinary people. We’re in our 20s like you. We want to rest, we’ll make mistakes, and we’ll date.’ That’s how you grow.”

That philosophy even explains the decision to release the fight footage. When Czaer heard Andrew and Junmyung had fought, his first question was whether it had happened within view of a security camera.

“People think it’s fake. But when I heard the two had fought, I thought we had to show this to the public. Luckily, they had fought where there was CCTV, so I told them to quickly edit it and upload it,” he said.

What is ‘Nu K-pop’?

For Czaer, Nu K-pop is less a musical genre and more a culture and way of operating.

“The music is all already out there. There’s nothing really new left,” he said. “That’s why I’m careful about defining exactly what Nu K-pop is. You have to keep watching to understand it.”

That includes rejecting what he sees as the relentless pace of the conventional idol business.

“Idols sign seven-year contracts, and agencies need to generate revenue, so idol groups don’t get to rest. Look at the K-pop scene now. Everything moves nonstop. We’re not going to follow that approach. If we need to prepare the next album, of course the members need to rest, and we’re not going to overdo things like advertisements or fan signing events.”

“We’re not trying to change K-pop. There’s disco, and there’s nu-disco. It’s the same idea. We want to exist alongside it,” Czaer added.

A K-pop outsider

Nu K-pop becomes somewhat easier to understand after meeting the person behind it.

Dressed in shorts and slides, Czaer answered questions on the terrace of Wayf’s Seoul office. His casual appearance matched an interview in which he made little effort to soften his opinions.

Before registering Wayf as a company in August 2024, Czaer worked as a music director on Mnet’s hit dance competition shows “Street Woman Fighter” and “Street Man Fighter.” He readily admits that K-pop was never his primary musical interest.

“I originally had very little interest in K-pop. Growing up, I listened to people like Teddy Riley, Quincy Jones, Darkchild and Dr. Dre. They’re all producers who shape the music themselves. I grew up in Korea, but I didn’t really listen to K-pop. I was much more into hip-hop and pop,” he said. “Even now, I don’t really listen to K-pop for enjoyment.”

Czaer began experimenting with Cubase in middle school, worked as a DJ in his 20s and moved into production in his 30s before becoming an executive in his 40s.

His outsider’s perspective shaped what would become Wayf Boys.

“About three years ago, when I decided I should start producing, I started monitoring boy groups and girl groups on YouTube, but I couldn’t tell who was who. They all had similar production and similar concepts. They looked cool, but they didn’t look like people making art,” he said.

“They seemed more like performers than artists. I wanted to show the process of artists growing. I thought there would definitely be people who would like it if we did things our way.”

Even his stage name reflects that ambition. Czaer said it was inspired by Caesar, the protagonist of the “Planet of the Apes” films.

“I wanted to play the role in K-pop that Caesar does in the movie, starting a revolution, so I chose Czaer. And I look a little like an ape, too,” he said.

Friends before idols

Wayf Boys began taking shape about three years ago, when Czaer met Ryan while the future member was still an SM Entertainment trainee.

“Ryan was 17 or 18 when I first met him. Our company was still under construction at the time. He came in to record a demo, and his tone was incredible. I thought I could build a team with him at its core. He wasn’t someone who simply wanted to become an idol. He genuinely loved making music,” Czaer recalled.

Ryan became the first Wayf Boys member to sign with the company. The rest of the lineup, however, was not assembled through a conventional casting process. Ryan brought in friends.

“I don’t remember the exact order in which the members joined, but they’re all Ryan’s friends. They came here, hung out freely and naturally made music, and I think they became attracted to what we were doing. They’re all Koreans who grew up or spent significant time overseas, and some had been at places like YG, SM, KOZ and More Vision,” Czaer said.

Czaer said his primary criterion was whether they understood Wayf’s philosophy. The company name carries two meanings: “Where Art Yields Freedom” and “We Are Your Friend.”

He cited US hip-hop collective A$AP Mob and French label Ed Banger as references for the creative environment he wants — artists freely making and planning music together, with the label supporting them.

Although “Wayf Boys Do” is rooted in hip-hop, Czaer said the group will not be tied to a single genre or fixed release schedule.

“There’s no need to like only one genre anymore. Hip-hop was just where we started. We’re going to try many genres,” he said. “We’re not going to release an album because we think, ‘We need to show them something.’ We’ll release one when we have something to say.”

Business, but differently

Czaer also wants to challenge another established part of the idol business: how agencies make money.

K-pop companies rely heavily on physical album sales and concerts, with fan signing events commonly used to encourage multiple album purchases. Czaer said Wayf Boys will not follow that model simply to drive revenue.

“Looking at how agencies make money, the big ones are selling CDs and performing. But with albums, they put photocards in them and get fans to buy hundreds or thousands of copies for fan signing events. I don’t think that’s really for the fans,” he said.

“Then artists have to keep doing fan signs to sell CDs. That naturally leaves them with less time to create and ultimately keeps them from doing what they’re supposed to do as artists — creating. That’s not a model we’re going to follow,” the creative director added.

He said Wayf is also constantly exploring different approaches to business.

“We don’t have to do things we don’t want to do just to make money,” Czaer said.

That philosophy may sound idealistic. But one development came far earlier than even Czaer expected.

Interscope comes calling

On Aug. 14, exactly one week after Wayf Boys’ debut, the group appeared on the official artist roster of Interscope Records, part of Universal Music Group, after signing an exclusive deal for US activities.

For a group from a newly established agency to secure a deal with a major US label only a week after debut is unusual. Czaer had planned to sign Wayf Boys with a US label within a year but did not expect it to happen so quickly.

“This was in our one-year plan. But it came incredibly fast. When we were uploading our own content and had around 300,000 Instagram followers, major overseas labels started contacting us nonstop,” Czaer said. “That started around June. Including subsidiaries of major US labels, about eight companies reached out.”

Despite receiving multiple offers, Czaer said Interscope had particular resonance for him.

“Dr. Dre, Tupac — I listened to Tupac on cassette tapes in middle school and decided this was the music I wanted to do,” he said.

The US deal also fits Wayf’s strategy of prioritizing overseas markets.

“We’re going overseas before focusing on Korea. The US will be the center, and South America is our second market,” Czaer said.